Wellness programs and rewards promote a healthier lifestyle. Providing the proper rewards provides participants with motivation to participate in and complete the program. Businesses, community groups and charity organizations are common places to find a wellness program. Themes of weight-loss programs include smoking cessation and weight reduction. Work site wellness programs can benefit participants and the company. For example, the desired outcome could be to reduce your company's health care costs, and your employees get healthier in the process.
Rewards and Rules
Participants in a wellness program can be rewarded with money, prize drawings or merchandise such as T-shirts and movie tickets. Work site wellness programs can offer other rewards, such as health plan contributions, days off and employee recognition via e-mails and newsletters. Companies can avoid abuse of their rewards program by defining rules, such as attending a full lecture and not just 10 minutes, and asking participants to keep a log of activities, weight gain or weight loss, and food consumption.
Determining Rewards
Companies giving rewards to participants in a wellness program to achieve goals can increase participation by 12 percent to 35 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC suggests surveying the target group about the types of preferred incentives to determine which ones are valuable enough to participants to encourage participation, then determining which rewards fall within the budget. Work site wellness programs can offer rewards benefiting the company, such as a reduction in health care premiums. Some companies consider determining rewards based on point accumulation, rather than one-time contests, according to Eureka Alert.
High Returns on Company Investment
Implementing a work site wellness program can reap returns on investment as high as 6 to 1, according to a study by Texas A&M University that was reported in the November 2010 issue of the Harvard Business Review. The most successful wellness programs reported six common factors: engaged multiple levels of leadership, strategically aligned the program with the company's identity and goals, a quality program high in relevance, broad accessibility, both internal and external partnerships, and effective communication with employees.
Overweight Participants' Lives Improve
Participants can quickly gain benefits in weight-loss wellness programs if they emphasize diet and exercise, according to a study conducted by the Center for Botanical Lipids in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and published in the July 2010 issue of the journal Prevention of Chronic Disease. After eight weeks of a prescribed diet and exercise program, 41 overweight or obese adults lost weight, decreased body weight and reported increased self-wellness.
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